Wednesday, June 21, 2006

As if we needed any further proof that our commander-in-chief just doesn't get it, President George W. Bush flicked off protests by tens of thousands in Vienna -- where he and his secretary of state are meeting with European Union leaders, in order to make an ill-advised remark on the gender of the U.S. secretary of state and the Austrian foreign minister. While the remark itself wasn't blatantly offensive, one might term it as exhibiting the soft bigotry of low expiation. Herewith, from Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times:

[Bush's] visit, aimed at expanding trade and spotlighting unity, was marked by protests and calls within Europe for United States to shut down its detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Stolberg reports that Austrian President Heinz Fischer greeted Bush at the great palace of the Hapsburg emperors, in a room that was once the bed chamber of the Empress Maria Theresia:

The two shook hands for the cameras, standing between Secretary Rice and her Austrian counterpart, Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik.

"This is called thorns between the roses," Mr. Bush quipped.

Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.Photo by Josie Duckett, courtesy U.S. Dept. of State

Now, your blogstress is the first to admit that Plassnik is perhaps the hottest creature ever to grace the diplomatic stage, while Condi possesses a certain dominatrix appeal.

But while it is perfectly appropriate for your blogstress to assess and pronounce upon such things -- indeed, it is her job -- there is something unseemly and condescending about the ostensible leader of the nominally free world doing so.

What your blogstress won't do for her devotees! For the last two days, mes amis, she has been swimming in a sea of alphabet soup, trolling through the roils of HTML code and Perl, vexing her pretty little head in order to bring the satisfaction of the AddieStan experience to a whole new level for you, her reader.

As this work is not yet complete, her posting may be a bit intermittent today and in the coming days, so she begs your patience, mes cheris. Do bear in mind what they say comes to those who wait. (Hint: ask Martha Stewart.)

About Me

Adele M. Stan is a journalist and editor whose work has appeared in The New Republic, the Village Voice, The Nation, The Advocate, Salon.com, the Washington Blade and Mother Jones magazine, as well as on the op-ed pages of the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Daily News. She began her media career at Ms. magazine, where she served both on staff and as a contributing editor.
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